Alix Resources Corp. is a Canadian mining company that invests
in gold mines in Arizona and tungsten mines in British Columbia.
But in early 2014, it will kick off a new venture: it's launching a bitcoin trading exchange.

"We are a mining exploration company so, yes, this is a bit
different," Alix Resources CEO Michael England told the Vancouver Sun on Wednesday, 13 November.
"There's a lot of expectations that bitcoins are going higher, so
why not start accumulating?"

England did not return messages from Wired seeking comment, but
it's safe to say that he's a symbol of yet another bitcoin boom.
The value of the world's most popular digital currency is up about
3,000 percent from its January trading values -- it crossed over
$400 (£248) yesterday -- and everyone from gamblers to
entrepreneurs want to know how they can cash in.

Several companies now offer mining services in the cloud,
and many others are selling specialised bitcoin mining rigs,
hardware that generates bitcoins by helping to drive the
distributed software system that oversees the digital currency. One
company, KnCMiner, says it took in $3 million (£1.8 million) in mining
rig orders in just four days last week. The week before that, three
young entrepreneurs in Vancouver fired up an ATM that trades cash
for bitcoins and vice versa. They say they did $100,000 (£62,000)
in exchanges on their first day.

It's the kind of gold rush speculation that counld inspire a
penny stock mining company like Alix Resources to start its own
exchange. But it's also an area that poses serious risks for
investors.

Last month, an Australian startup called inputs.io was hacked
and more than $1 million (£600,000) in customer bitcoins stolen.
The company's teenaged founder says that customers aren't going to
get all their money back. He doesn't have enough to cover the
losses. And last week, a Hong Kong exchange called GBL reportedly vanished, taking with it millions of dollars
belonging to 1,000 investors.

Over the past year, regulators have begun to explore the digital
currency. On Monday, 18 November, the Senate Committee on Homeland
Security and Governmental Affairs will hold hearings on bitcoin,
and these will likely focus on the Silk Road, a online drug market
that used bitcoin before it was shut down by the feds.

What's more, as was revealed today in a letter shared with
WIRED, the New York State Department of Financial Services will
soon hold its own public hearings to examine how bitcoin and other
digital currencies should be regulated. The department declined a
request for comment, but for Jean-Jacques "J" Cabou, a partner with
the international law firm Perkins Coie who closely follows the
evolution of bitcoin, this is another step in the right
direction.

"I think that the time and effort expended by the NYDFS to
understand the virtual currency industry is commendable," he says.
"It certainly seems that the DFS is interested in making a decision
about virtual currencies that is tailored to this emerging
industry, rather than simply trying to squeeze the industry into a
preexisting set of regulations designed for something else."